These serials were shown
at movie theatres back in the day when kids would spend all Saturday afternoon at the movies. Why? They'd get
at least one cartoon, an episode of the current serial, news reels (the only way of seeing the news before television),
the main feature and a B-Feature.

The Adventures of Smilin'
Jack (1943) - "Daredevil pilot Smilin' Jack Martin stumbles onto a legend that could
turn the tide of World War II to the allie's favor." (www.oldies.com) It stars Tom Brown as Jack Martin, Rose Hobart and Marjorie Lord. It also stars Sidney Toler (who took over
the role of Charlie Chan in 1938); Keye Luke (Number 1 Son to the first Charlie Chan, Warner Oland) and Philip Ahn, (who was
Number 1 son-in-law in Charlie Chan in Honolulu {1938]and a bad guy in Roland Winters' The Chinese Ring [1947]).

The Green Hornet (1940) - Gordon Jones, Wade Boteler, Anne Negal and Keye Luke star in this serial based on a radio
show where Gordon Jones is newspaper publisher Britt Reid who goes undercover as the Green Hornet to fight crime.

In this installment, he
goes head on against The Leader . . . surprise! . . . who has a wide net of criminal-types to do his bidding. . . .
Hmm, sounds like a bunch of serials of the day, doesn't it?! They rarely have such zing to them!

(WARNING: The picture
is mediocre because the quality is . . . shall we say "fuzzy"?):

The Return of Chandu
(1934) - Bela Lugosi plays Frank Chandler, also known as Chandu from his years spent in the Orient studying
magic. In Return to Chandu he must protect the Egyptian Princess Nardji from the cult followers of Ubasti headed
by Lucien Prival as Vindhyan. The cult of Ubasti is on the island of Lemuria and they are trying to resurrect Ossana,
their long-dead goddess, by kidnapping and sacrificing Nadji. The serial version that Maven has is rather jerky
since it is more than 75 years old but who cares when you can see Bela Lugosi in an interesting role that is so different
from his faux fang films!:

The
Phantom (1943) - You can't get better than the way Archive.org describes
this serial: It's "a Columbia Pictures 15 chapter serial starring Tom Tyler in the title role. The serial is based
on Lee Falk's comic strip The Phantom. The serial also features Jeanne Bates as the Phantom's girlfriend Diana Palmer, and
Ace the Wonder Dog as the Phantom's trusty German shepherd Devil (who is a wolf in the original comic)."Professor Davidson plans an
expedition to find the Lost City of Zoloz. The location of the city is contained on seven pieces of ivory, three of which
Davidson already possesses. Doctor Bremmer, however, intends to find the lost city and use it as a secret airbase for his
unnamed country. To remove him as an obstacle, he kills The Phantom, only for his recently returned son, Geoffrey Prescott,
to inherit the family identity and take over the mantle of The Phantom.Three of the remaining ivory pieces are owned by Singapore Smith, who initially
steals Davidson's pieces. The seventh, and most important, piece is missing at first but turns up in the possession of Tarter
(which The Phantom acquires by wrestling Tarter's pet gorilla).":

Phantom Empire (1935
Serial with Gene Autry) - Phantom Empire covers quite a lot of territory - besides being a serial from when kids could
still go to the local movie house for all Saturday Afternoon Matinees - it was a western, musical (Gene Autry always
sang in his movies), science fiction/fantasy. Autry comes across the Continent of Mu that had become submerged
underwater but somehow become located his Radio Ranch. Its populous had developed television (yes, in 1935!), robots
and ray guns. The source of power of the ray guns came from radium deposits that the bad guys discover under Autry's
ranch and want to get their hot little fists on . . . . It gives movies and serials like this a "Huh?" moment with
today's viewers wondering about radium poisoning, but it's fun to watch if you can enjoy it on the innocence of the time it
was made. This link is to the first chapter but it gives the links to the whole series. Bon appétit!

The Vanishing Shadow (1934) – What’s not to love about a serial that www.imdb.com describes as "A 12-episode serial in which a son avenges the death
of his father at the hands of corrupt politicians. He develops a wide variety of complex devices in his crusade . . . ray
guns, robots and a 'vanishing belt.' "?!: